Seated in the courtroom gallery Thursday is Gary MacDougal, who chaired the Illinois Republican Party back in 2002, when Rod Blagojevich was first elected governor.
At the time, MacDougal attacked the Democratic Blagojevich as nothing more than “the inexperienced son of a Chicago ward boss.” McDougal says he had been visited by various law enforcement sources who told him of Blagojevich’s “sleazy background.” He implored the press to dig, he says, but felt his clarion calls were dismissed as little more than the words of a party hack.
MacDougal says he was “sickened” by the tapes he heard in court today, of Blagojevich discussing ways to leverage President Obama‘s former U.S. Senate seat.
“I go to church and read the Bible and I know that Schadenfreude is not a healthy thing,” MacDougal said during a break in the trial this afternoon. “But yes, it feels good. It shouldn’t, I know, but it does.”
I believe Blago was the son-in-law of a ward boss (Dick Mell), not the son.
This McDougal guy is just another GOP phony who complains about the Dem party while turning a blind eye to all the corruption in his own Republican house. And wasn’t he running around with Stu Levine during Jim Ryan’s failed campaign for governor in 2002? Wasn’t McDougal in Ryan’s inner fundraising circle and wasn’t Levine the biggest contributor to Jim Ryan?
McDougal is just happy more of his GOP buddies aren’t sitting at the defense table. Not this week at least.